Restructuring recruitment on the rise

Advising on bankruptcies and restructuring has traditionally been dominated by independent boutiques and accounting firms, but some investment banks are gearing up hiring activity for an expected rise in company defaults and bankruptcies.

"There are certainly more restructuring jobs in the investment banking sector," says Jim Nairn, a partner at recruitment firm the Cornell Partnership.

"Lehman, UBS, Lazard, Close Brothers and Rothschild have all got teams in place and have been hiring at mid-associate level," Nairn says. "Teams range from between five and 20 people. The new teams are hiring senior level candidates first, and will then look at hiring juniors."

The Financial Times reports that Goldman Sachs has underscored its commitment to expanding its restructuring business with the appointment of James Sprayregen as head of European restructuring, who was lured away from a similar role at Rothschild.

Distressed debt funds are also hiring

As banks gear up to advise companies on restructuring their debts, on the other side of the coin fund managers and hedge funds are increasingly interested in investing in distressed debt securities.

"There is a subtle feeling that in the next two to three years there will be an increase in insolvencies, and as a result the big funds want to be ready for the downturn and investment opportunities that may present themselves in the market," says James Heath, managing director of search firm Greenwich Partners.

"We have seen a notable increase in the last three to six months of both specialist distressed debt hedge funds and investment fund hiring, as well as the distressed debt teams within larger hedge funds looking to add people, both as analysts and portfolio managers."

Heath says that a good distressed debt investment manager with two years investment experience out of a good business school like Harvard can expect a basic salary in the region of 80,000-110,000, with bonuses of between 100% and 300%.

He says candidates for the new roles are to be found everywhere from restructuring firms, to the large traditional private equity funds, top tier strategy firms, the financial sponsors of leverage finance and high yield teams of the large investment banks.